Burkina Faso : Apollinaire Kyélem de Tambèla blocked from leaving the country

The former Burkinabè prime minister Apollinaire Kyélem de Tambèla has been stopped from leaving Burkina Faso, on a decision taken by the authorities of Captain Ibrahim Traoré.

The measure adds another chapter to the tightening grip the transitional government has placed on a number of political and public figures.

An exit ban on a man who once ran the government

Appointed prime minister by Ibrahim Traoré in October 2022, Kyélem de Tambèla led the Burkinabè government until his departure in December 2024. The ban now falls on him at a moment when he no longer belongs to the executive.

That timing raises an obvious question: what leads the authorities to judge it necessary, today, to restrict the movements of a man who has already left office?

Beyond one man, a question about public freedoms

The case reaches well past the personal trajectory of the former prime minister. A ban on leaving the national territory is a heavy measure, and when it targets someone who has held the highest offices of the state, it deserves a clear and transparent justification.

A security argument in a tense climate

The backdrop sharpens the sensitivity of the decision. Since Ibrahim Traoré came to power, the Burkinabè authorities have justified several exceptional measures by the fight against terrorism, the defence of sovereignty and the need to prevent attempts at destabilisation.

While he was prime minister, Kyélem himself had publicly mentioned the existence of several attempts aimed at the transitional government.

Yet the security argument does not settle every question. Should such a restriction be limited in time? On what legal basis does it rest? Who ordered it? And what precise charges or reasons are being invoked against the former prime minister?

What Burkinabè law says about leaving the country

Burkinabè legislation frames the conditions under which the national territory may be left. The point is therefore to establish the precise legal framework in which the measure against Kyélem de Tambèla was adopted.

How far can the transition go in the name of security?

The affair now stretches beyond the career of one former prime minister. It raises a broader question about the nature of the transitional power: how far can it go in the name of national security without further weakening individual freedoms?

For Ibrahim Traoré, the decision risks above all feeding the debate on the shrinking of political space in Burkina Faso. Preventing a former government figure from leaving the country is never a politically neutral act.

In Ouagadougou, the Kyélem de Tambèla case could therefore become a fresh marker of the relationship between security, political control and public freedoms under military rule.